


Photogenic

by Kamari333



Category: Slender Man Mythos, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Dance just has a thing for Agility and Athleticism, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, Gen, Love at First Sight, Parkour, Video
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-10-06 07:14:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20502977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamari333/pseuds/Kamari333
Summary: Archiving this fromPillowfort.A crossover between my interpretation and variation of teandstar's Dancetale (as can be depicted in theEbott is a Multiverseseries) and a Slenderman AU OC, as requested by Tluthal.Dance watches and reacts to a certain video.





	Photogenic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tluthal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tluthal/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Gonna Climb It](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20241289) by [tluthal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tluthal/pseuds/tluthal). 

> There _so little content_ or reference to the Slenderman mythos that it's statistically non-existent. However, the OC is a heavily slenderman-influenced character, and there are events that take place due to that influence, so the tag is deserved.
> 
> Fun fact: this OC is also influenced by the Dark Souls series, but there is literally no reference to that at all, so I did not add that tag.

Dance was bored. He'd killed some time adding a security system to the oven (and lasers; for cooking and defense! and also to annoy Suave, _the lasers hater, he had no sense of whimsy_), and a CD player to the microwave, and maybe he rewired the old box TV (which would have looked more at home in the 1990s) that they'd scavenged from the dump into a smart TV, which was going to be a mindfuck to anyone coming to visit, but now he was bored.

Refusing to acknowledge the numerous sticky notes all over the apartment from Suave passive-aggressively inviting him to the dance studio (whether to give lessons or assist or just practice, _Suave wasn't desperate, of course not_), Dance pulled up his shiny new laptop and got onto the neighbor's internet, googling for some videos to entertain himself. YouTube was an innovation that humans got right (or at least as right as humans seemed to be able to get, which admittedly was still a long way from ideal). He browsed aimlessly at first, starting with cat videos (an internet standard apparently?) which took him down a rabbit hole to rabbit videos, which took him to a video featuring birds, which eventually led him to a parkour video of someone dancing on a chimney in a fashion the comments argued was named 'Step in Time' or 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' (_what the fuck-?!_) in equal measure. From there he wandered from one parkour video to the next until he found one under the suggestions with an unusual name:

**[exploration explanation double vision]**

Dance squinted at the title. Sounded artsy. He was bored. Why not. Poke.

A black screen? Dance took a moment to appreciate the typography used in the video. [The devroye font](https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/devroye) was uncommon but pretty, and the verdant text color immediately made him relax. Was it even better it was all in lower case? Perhaps. Dance wasn't above his own petty preferences.

"**so some of y'all been asking how we get to some of our explorations.**" the devroye script said, curling across the screen in a way that screamed sarcasm. "**frequently.**" A number of screenshots of numerous comments echoing the same sentiment popped onto the screen, accompanied by cartoon-y popping sound effects. "**so here ya go.**"

Was this a behind-the-scenes video? Those were usually boring. He immediately started looking for a new video to click into.

A fade transition refocused on someone in fully body coverage – to the point where they could only possibly be recognized by their height. Mask, hat, gloves, the whole shebang made them basically anonymous despite being clearly on camera in broad daylight as they did basic stretches. Dance still wasn't interested, but he was having trouble deciding between a neo-swing duet between these guys in pinstripe suits and 'Entry #1' of something called 'Marble Hornets' (why would anyone want to make angry asshole bugs out of marble? all they did was make grumpy noises and fly into eyesockets and try to stab you from the inside for three hours because they're stupid and can't find their way out again, _not that Dance had any firsthand experience, of course not, nobody saw anything, there was no proof, shut up_).

Dance was still glaring angrily at the recommendation when the video shifted to a duel screen, drawing his attention. Were they using a drone? Drones were cool! Maybe this wouldn't be so bad to watch after all?

Then Dance saw them _move_.

Dance had seen a few parkour videos since coming to the surface (by which he meant hundreds, which is probably why his recommendations were so full of them no matter what he started his search for), so the act itself wasn't particularly unusual. The _execution_, however, _was_. The way this person twisted, curled their body, balanced and spun, performed with such aplomb, was almost melodic in its elegance. Dance felt his soul give way to a rapid staccato, quivering with a sudden, forceful yearning that made him lightheaded and somehow ravenous (despite having already gorged himself on all the snackfood in the house).

When the person began to climb, launching themselves with kickjumps up the wall to pull themselves onto a balcony, Dance was seeing them execute cantilevers, lean outs, axel lifts. When they made their way across the uneven, decorative ridges to their next escalation point, he was seeing toprock footwork. When they vaulted from one ledge to another, all Dance could see was a _god damn power move_. He wasn't seeing parkour anymore. He was seeing art. For the first time in his life, Dance was looking at a fucking building and thinking, 'God I wish that were me.'

The person came to a stop, resting by sitting on the ledge overlooking a drop that would definitely be fatal. Dance couldn't help noting, lingering, over just how small they were. They had to be shorter than he was, at least.

The screen suddenly and without warning cut to black. "**oops, photobombers gonna bomb!**" said the emerald cursive script. To one side was an animated loop of some bipedal creature performing a dance move Dance was unfamiliar with. The hands came up to show the palms outward, fingers curling and uncurling in time with the sing of the hips as they angled themselves from side to side. The creature almost looked human, but discolored and covered in what appeared to be serious damage. Dance decided to ignore the obscene view of the third and fourth ribs, put on display by not only the rip in the clothing, but the hole in the skin and muscle that iconically encapsulated every biological creature, averting his eyes for the few seconds that the familiar upbeat pop song played.

The video cut back to the person, a perfect shot of them giving what appeared to be empty air an aggressive middle finger. Dance supposed the previously mentioned photo-bomber had been in that area before, and had only just vacated it. He absently thought it rather alarming, in a cerebrally horrific way, that the event seemed to be such a commonplace and almost expected occurrence that the videographer had a prepared intermission in place.

Perhaps Dance was overthinking it. It could just as easily be a one time thing and they simply put work into making the moment somewhat entertaining (if scandalously so).

The person moved on to-

Dance did a double take.

Were they breaking into that building?!?!

They were. They were absolutely breaking into what appeared to be an abandoned building. Dance had no idea why. He didn't see any value in it.

...Maybe if he watched a few more videos from their channel, he'd find out?


End file.
